Forum Moderators: open
As we all know, AV is horrible at keeping their serps updated. This really sucks, but can be used against them. Domain names expire every day. Often times, these are really good domain names. Sometimes the owners don't even realize they have expired. I have had good luck picking up on several of these expired domains. I make sure that the domain that is expiring is in the same subject as my website. I then run a check on the domain name to see how many links it has to it on the web.
If the site has the same theme as my webpage, and it has lots of links to it, I will reserve the domain name.
Once I own the new domain, I have the URL forwarded to my existing web page.
At this point, all the old links the new domain has on the web now point to your web page. So, if your web page is www.bluewidgets.com, and you just bought the new domain www.cyanwidgets.com, all links on the web to cyancars.com will now be forwarded to bluewidgets.com.
If you want all pages within cyanwidgets.com to point to your web page, you will have to FTP some new file names to your bluewidgets.com server. For example, lets say your new domain cyanwidgets.com has a page with the URL of www.cyanwidgets.com/links.html
and you want the above url to point to your www.bluewidgets.com/index.htm page. You will have to FTP the following file name to bluewidgets.com's server. "index.htmlinks.html"
(of course, you wouldn't use the quotes).
In this "index.htmlinks.html file" you would just make a simple html file forwarding to your bluwidgets.com site.
I usually do a search in Altavista and Google to see what active links are listed in the search engines. I then make a file like above for all the URL's listed.
I like to keep track of expiring domain names at the following website:
[domainsnext.com...]
It can take several days for them to expire once they reach this list, so you may not be able to reserve them for 5 or 6 days after you see them on the list.
I also look for expired domains in Webcrawler.com, Surfpoint.com, and Altavista. I just enter my search term in the search engine, and start looking for 404 errors. So if i had a web site selling WIDGETS, i would search the engine for "WIDGETS", and look for 404 pages. If they are available, I then check to see if they have lots of links to them. If they do, your in luck. I have gotten some pretty good ranking listings on Altavista this way.
One thing to beware of, is that the search engines may see all these links all going to the same web page, and think that you have SPAM'ed their search engine. Therefore, within a few days of getting the new URL, i usually create a new and totally unique web page under the new URL.
I would love to hear anyone elses thoughts on this. Does anyone use any similar techniques ? Any better resources out there than the ones i listed above ?
mike
<added by seth>use profile for email addy</added>
especially from misc. links around the web.
If you have a web page selling English Kilts, and you claim an expired domain that has their url linked to 900 scottih web pages around the web, you can bet you will get a whole bunch of people clicking on the links and getting forwarded to your Scottish Kilt page. If the new URL was listed well in the Search Engines, it's even better.
Only problem, is that you have to be quick, because the "GOOD" search engines, like GOOGLE, Yahoo, etc. update their database more often, and delete these 404 pages. However, you usually have quite a while before they delete from Altavista. If you can get it forwarded before the good search engines delete the listing, then it won't come up 404 anymore, and will be forwarded to you.
1. of all the recently expired domain names, there must be at least 98% resulting from all the lunatics who bought names a year (or 2 years) ago, with no intention of using them (and of no value to anyone).
2. traffic from altavista is virtually negligable at the best of times. And those companies that have folded (or just let their name expire) are most likely to be those that are (a) not in the first page of SERPS, and, (b) without a good amount of inbound links.
Your concept is sound - but to actually find such a name would be like finding a needle in a haystack.
However, I suppose your chances of success with this trick would be increased if you deal with a very wide range of topics - the odds would be more in your favour of finding your 404 pages if you were searching lots of different subject areas.
Good luck though - and keep these ideas coming!
Stavs
[deleteddomains.com...]
appears to be more useful than the resource you are currently using - its searchable and it contains more names (for some reason).
Just click on the 'Power Search' text link to access the names search box.
Happy Hunting.
Thanks for the link for the expired links. It does have better listings for DELETED domains. The list I use is for domains that are ABOUT TO BE deleted. The best domains are often picked through before they make it to the deleted list.
I have had absolutely no problem finding good URL's. I don't just use Altavista as a criteria. I don't usually choose a URL unless it has at least 100 links on the web linking to it. Also, I like it to still be listed in most of the search engines (especially google & yahoo). Third, it must have had somewhat the same customer base as my current page.
Yes, you do have to act quick, and keep constant track of expiring domains. But, it is very rewarding.
There are several resources on the web you can use to see what the "Link Popularity" of a certain URL is. I had listed some above, but the moderator deleted those also.
"Domain not found locally, but Registry points back to local DB.
Local whois DB must be out of date."
When this message shows up, it will usually be 5 or 6 days before the domain is actually available. This is the best time to find these domains (or within a few days after they become available).
If i did use the deleteddomains.com search, i would probably set it to search for domains that expired in the last 24 hours (maybe last 7 days).
I really love this link though, thanks !!! I found some pretty good available domains.
on the power search at deleted domains, try using the option to search for names that are placed 'on hold' - I think those are the ones you are looking. Or you can get it display both, i.e. deleted and held (held are in red).
You certainly appear to have received much censorship in this thread - you will probably have received an explanation by stickmail, there is usually a good reason for it. Though I wasn't aware that it was a problem to post url's of useful webmaster resources - you live and learn.
For example, deleteddomains.com shows widgets.com (on hold since 09-19-01).
from this, you have no idea if it is going to be 1 month or 6 months before it actually goes "off hold". The list I use shows that widgets.com is due to come off hold within a few days. It gets you ready to grab it. You can also pay some services to grab the "on hold" ones the second they come available, but that can get expensive.
I haven't gotten any emails from the moderator yet. I don't exactly know why he changed my post.
[edited by: seth_wilde at 3:05 pm (utc) on May 6, 2003]
I wondered why deleteddomains showed more names.
you could check it every 3 or 4 days and if you find a good name, you'll be in with a good chance of getting it - rather than waiting for months and probably losing interest in the process.
Good find!
I was just curious why my post was edited. I am new here, and I assume that the Moderator didn't like me using certain commerical URL's. Possibly he looked upon it as advertising. As far as changing my URL's in my examples, maybe he wanted to change them to ficticious URL's. I didn't check to see if the URL's i used as examples were real URL's or not. just threw out some examples off the top of my head.
Whatever the case, i respect his judgement, and have no reason to be Dis-Respectful.
THANKS
>url drops
As you know, our heritage is with search engine promotion. Our best estimate is 85% of our daily 3k visitors are promotors or marketing related professionals. eg: we know every (as you put it in 4 posts) trick of the trade. We tend to err on the side of caution in that respect because once the flood gates open, there's no holding back the dam.
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Anyway, back on topic.
